First Trail Ride of the Season

I suffered a back injury last summer that kept me off my bike for the entire season. For that reason, I've been taking it really slowly this year on my bike, even though I want to go-go-go. My most recent ride was 6.5km, riding on the trail on a beautiful day.

Bike Ride To (Not) Doughnuts

I went on a pretty amazing bike ride on Friday, my longest of the season at 18.5km (11.5 miles) and almost two hours. It felt great and reminded me how much fun it is to be out on my bike. I also got to take in some views of farm country which are beautiful this time of year.

When I set out on Friday, I had the idea that I might be bike riding to doughnuts. Earlier this summer I learned there was a coffee shop within biking distance, and I thought it would be neat to ride home with some doughnuts on my back (I would definitely have earned them). Headed that way, when it came time to turn off the trail, I just didn't feel like getting doughnuts. I was so pumped up from covering so much distance on my bike, that doughnuts were the last thing I wanted. I kept on riding along the trail and I felt healthy and happy and all those other positive feelings that come from exercise.

But don't worry - I haven't lost my taste for doughnuts. There was a Beaver Tails truck in downtown Midland on the weekend and I didn't let it leave town before I got one.



Here are some photos from my lovely two hour bike ride from Friday night:

Riding the trail

Trees with the sun peeking through

Round Bales

Corn field

Art shot of my bike

Shadow me loves to be on the blog!

It's Go Time!

My 28 day reboot started today and I am feeling great about it!

It's all about adding daily, planned, physical activity to my life with an emphasis on walking. We had some beautiful weather this weekend and it was a nice push to get outside and do some activities. I did a 8.7km pre-reboot bike ride yesterday, and today I not only exceeded my walking goal but also got in an hour of swimming at the beach. Having a lot of fun and I'm already feeling a boost in my energy level.

I even got excited about doing household chores earlier today, as I saw mowing the lawn and vacuuming as a way to get my step count up (a wonderful practical bonus!).

The weather looks great this week and I'm super excited to get out there and be active.

I hope you had a great weekend whatever you were up to! :)

Sunny Days...Oh, Sunny, Sunny, Sunny Days...

Just a quick post before I head outside and enjoy this perfect weather.

It is 21°C, feels like 26°C, and with a light breeze it is perfect for bike riding. Can't wait to get out there. This past week it's been upwards of 30°C, feels like 37°C, and even though I went for some rides, the heat adds an extra challenge to staying out too long. The farthest I've gone this summer is 9km, so I'm planning on a longer ride today.

It is also perfect weather for going to the Drive-In. Tonight is "carload" night, which is two movies for only $8 per car. Super movie deal! Tonight's features are World War Z and This Is The End. I have little to no expectations for World War Z, other than I think Brad Pitt is the best and I hope the zombies aren't too scary. I am really looking forward to This Is The End, as it has most of the funny people I like and has a cameo by Emma Watson. Hope it's as fun as I want it to be!

World War Z Trailer:


This Is The End Trailer:


Whatever you are doing on this sunny day, I hope you are having a good one!

Friendly Motorists

Like I've mentioned before, I like to walk or ride on the rail trail near my place. It has all the joys of being 'in the woods' but is also right beside a major roadway, so I don't have to worry about bears. Periodically the trail crosses roads or driveways, but there is good signage that lets you know well ahead of time. 

I recently encountered some friendly motorists at one of the trail crossings. On both my way through and on my way back, two different drivers stopped at the trail crossing (which is not a required stop) and waved for me to cross ahead of them. The distance between the trail crossing and the actual stop sign is not that far (see photo), so I wouldn't have had to wait very long if they went first, but their random act of kindness made my day.

I don't know if they stopped because I'm in the country, or if the drivers were just feeling super friendly, or what. Whatever the reason, it was a nice thing to do! :)

Love My Rail Trail

I've decided that this summer is the Summer of Walking. It is also the summer of cycling, swimming, and being outside in general, but I recently read the book Wild by Cheryl Strayed and it reminded me how much I enjoy walking. If you haven't read it, check it out, it is very moving and inspiring. Highly recommended. 

There is a trail near my place that was converted from a railway line. This is my favourite trail for both walking and cycling, though walking requires a lot more bug spray. The trail runs parallel to the road, so it's pretty hard to get lost. Use of the trail is shared with ATVs, dirt bikes, runners, dog walkers, horseback riders, and sometimes groups of summer camp kids. I have always had safe travels on this trail, and have always found the people on motorized vehicles safe and respectful to pedestrians. It is a really positive space.

This is what part of the trail looks like heading North-ish.

And here is the view of the trail heading South-ish.

I realize they both look pretty similar. In either direction, the rail trail is a fantastic place to spend time and I plan on enjoying it as much as I can this summer.

My Adorable Small Town...

There are many pluses to being in the country. Easy access to nature, ample space, many beautiful places to walk, bike, and take photos. Another plus (for me) is the lack of conveniences; if I want a Tim Hortons it is at least a 12 minute drive, a 90 minute bike ride, or a 2.5 hour walk. And don’t forget it’s the same time/distance back.

Well this is no more. A Country Style doughnut shop opened a 5 minute drive away. This means I am 5 minutes away from doughnuts AT. ALL. TIMES (within store hours). Plus, that five minute drive is a bike ride I’ve done loads of times. It takes maybe half an hour. HALF. HOUR. FROM. DOUGHNUTS.

So, my new life goal: bike to doughnuts. They’ll be carried in my backpack for the ride home, so maybe I’ll avoid ones with drippy icing. And because I’ll have rode my bike there and back, I get to eat all of them! YAY!

This is the doughnut I ate doing research for this blog. You're welcome!

Purposeful Cycling - By The Numbers

This time of year we eat a tonne of corn on the cob, and our local grower is so close to home that I got the idea to bike ride to corn! I put on a corn carrying backpack, made sure I had my wallet, and set off to get us some farmer corn.

Distance traveled on bike to get corn: 4.5 KM (each way)

Number of corn purchased: 6 (we can't eat a full dozen before it goes off)

Cost of 6 corn: $3

Weight of backpack full of corn (as measured on a mostly inaccurate bathroom scale): 8 lbs

Amount of transit time it took on my bike: 40 minutes

Amount of time it would take in the car: 8 minutes

Number of KM not put on car: 9 KM

Number of degrees it was outside: 27°C

Number of degrees it felt like carrying corn on my back: a million°C

Number of corn eaten by me: 2

Oh Those Summer Nights

Time is moving so fast for me right now and I don't want to miss out on summer.  I almost had myself convinced that I couldn't do summer activities because I get home too late from work (6:00pm) and by the time I have dinner it is too late to do anything. Not true!! The weather has been so beautiful over the past three weeks and it has lasted well into the evening.  It is daylight until almost 10:00pm so I have time.  What I often lack is the 'get up and go' energy after being at work all day.

Wednesday night I knew I needed to get outside, but after dinner I felt tired, and the urge to do nothing started creeping in.  John encouraged me to go out on my bike anyway, which I slowly got ass my ass in gear to do, and I woke up in a big way.  It was only my second bike ride of the season so I wasn't sure how far I could go.  When I got on my bike, it just sort of drove itself to the beach.  Once there I kicked off my shoes and got almost knee deep in the beautiful, clear, warm, gorgeous water. The wind was blowing, so there were also big, beautiful waves that kept crashing into me. I didn't have my swimsuit with me, so I just enjoyed the water on my feet and the sights and sounds of the beach.  It was just lovely and I wholeheartedly agree that life is better at the beach.

The bike ride home is uphill the whole way and I really got a good work out doing it.  Halfway home, John met up with me in the car, to offer a ride if I was too tired to bike the whole way.  I was happy and energized and was more than able to make it home (up all the hills), but I find it sweet that he cares.

Thursday night we finally got a parking pass so we drove down to the beach for a quick swim.  I'm overjoyed that the water is not freezing at 8:00pm as I really want to spend as much time in the water as I can this summer, and after work is my prime time to enjoy it.  I will get to enjoy some daytime swims this summer too, as I had a day off yesterday and my Bro's came up and we spent three wonderful hours at the beach.  Looking forward to going back sometime this weekend and then every beautiful evening for the remainder of the summer.  Can't wait!

Life's a Beach

This is the public beach that is a simple bike ride away from my house.  Feeling exploratory yesterday, I took a tour down to the beach to see how far away it actually was and see if it was plausible that I could ride there, swim, and ride back.  I discovered that not only is it super quick to get there (15 min) the ride there is mostly downhill. Beautiful.  Which begs the question, how have I not done this before now?

Recently I have gained a tremendous amount of confidence in my bike riding.  I used to think places were much farther away then they actually are, and I also underestimated my energy/ability to get to and from a destination.  For whatever reason I believed that my body was going to give out or break or something equally awful that would leave me stranded wherever I set out to be.  Anxiety is really stupid, isn’t it?  All my positive bike rides this summer have allowed me to let go of most of these fears and gain the confidence to go anywhere I want to on my bike.  I am not trained to do a Tour de France or anything, but within safe distance it is pretty much a sure bet that I can get there and back on my own energy.

I wasn’t just fighting anxiety on this one, I was also suffering from a case of not remembering where I am.  Because I live here, I often forget that I live in cottage country.  Near a lake.  People struggle through horrendous traffic on Friday nights and Sunday afternoons to enjoy this, and I often ignore it.  Shameful.  To my credit, the past few summers have been rainy and about eight months of the year is cold or snowy, so it has been relatively easy to forget.  Also, the beach has become more and more privatized over the past few years, so there are only a handful of public access points and even less parking spaces.  There is an increase in ticket-happy by-law officers who have no problem writing $60 tickets for anyone parked in the wrong spot.  We luckily have a parking pass, but it is still a gamble whether there will be a free spot and we only have one pass, so if there are more people who want to swim than seat belts, it is an added complication.  So how happy am I that I figured out that I could ride my bike to beach and not worry about parking?

I did my test ride to beach last night and if the sun keeps shining l might take myself of a trip to the beach this afternoon.  Very excited. :)

Public access point to the beach.

One of the "Township-owned beach areas"

The trail to the beach with my happy bike.

 Art shot of my bike at the beach.  The kick stand just sunk into the sand,
so I had to hold it up.  Hence the close up.

Post Bike Ride Power Lunch

I went on an amazing 15km bike ride this morning that got me craving some protein when I got home.  Using the Magic Bullet we got for Christmas last year, I decided to make some super scrambled eggs.  I seriously need to do a grocery shop, as my available scrambled egg ingredients were quite limited (no vegetables!).  :(

Magic Bullet Scrambled Eggs: a recipe in photos.

First, I added chopped ham to the blender cup.

Next I added some cubed cheese.

 Then I added an egg and some milk.

I put on the blender lid and was ready to go!

Blended.  This stage looks kind of gross,

but it will be soooo yummy!

Mmmm.... Scrambled eggs and toast.

If I had more ingredients on hand, I would have added chopped broccoli, chopped green onions, and some mushrooms.  Even without the vegetables it tasted amazing!  Wanting a more balanced meal, though, I paired my protein scrambled eggs with some vegetable cocktail.  Yum!

I buy the low sodium kind, so I added some hot sauce

and pepper to give it some kick.

Very Yum.

Ring My Bell

I enjoy the simple pleasures of life.  The smell of fresh ground coffee.  Reading in the sunshine.  Getting a 500g cheese bar for only $3.97.  There are thousands of examples, all simple stuff, that can instantly boost my level on the happy-o-meter.

Today it was my bike bell.

I got a number of accessories for my bike last month, one of which was a cute little bell.   I love the sound it makes; there is just something about the "bring bring" that gets me smiling.  There is not much traffic up here, so I have only used it three times so far.  The first time, I alerted a neighbour that I was passing by so we could have a wave.  The other two times I've been able to use it were this morning.

Riding on the trail, I came up behind about twenty eight-year-old summer campers with their two teenage counsellors.  I rang the bell once (*glee*), and the back half of the campers moved aside so I could get past.  I had to ring the bell again for the front half of the campers (*super-glee*), and they too moved aside.  The bell not only sounds amazing ("bring bring") but it makes people move at my command!  Nice.

Now of course, if it was anyone else ringing the bell - like a small child who didn't respond to the phrase "stop it!" - I would probably have an opposite reaction to the ringing.  As it is, though, I get a little bit of joy from using my cute little bike bell.  :)

It's Tripple T HOTTT!!!!

It's hot out there today!  The Weather Network says it is 31°C but it apparently feels like 41°C (if you rock Fahrenheit that is 88° and 106° respectively)!!  That is Hottt!!!

Despite feeling sluggish and groggy in the heat, I rode my bike to the corner store to get the mail.  There were about eight other people there too, all in line for - or already eating - ice cream cones.  Everyone was discussing the heat.  Adding to the discussion, the store owner looked at me and scolded:

"And you're riding a bike!"

"I'm only going this far" I laughed, holding my fingers apart to measure about an inch.

I would judge me too if I was going any further than that! It's too damn hot! :)

Schools Out By The Numbers

On a bike ride around the neighbourhood today, I noticed several signs that school is out and summer is upon us.

By The Numbers:

Number of teenagers seen mowing lawns: 2

Number of kids on bikes riding around in circles: 3

Number of tweens outside the corner store eating candy: 2

Number of 7 year-old boys carrying a large bag of snacks home from the store (probably sent on this mission by an adult - classic!): 1

Number of people on the trail at the same time as I was: 3

Oh the Places You’ll Go

I recently found out that my bicycle seat was too low.  It has unfortunately been too low for two cycling seasons.  When I first bought my bike, I adjusted it from it’s original settings to what I felt was comfortable for me to ride.  Over the past two years I have gone (what I thought was) great distances on my bike.  It turns out, what I thought was “comfortable” was actually placing all the work to power my bike onto my knees.  Now that the seat has been moved up, the power to move my bike will come from my thigh muscles, as well as the force of my entire body.  The former “great distances” I’ve gone, are really only the beginning of how far I can go. I am pretty excited about where I will be able to ride to this summer.

I often ride on the Simcoe County/Tiny Trail system, and last summer I built up my endurance to make it to the next major (ha!) intersection, about 9 km away.  The whole ride was 18 km (there and back) and took an hour and a half.  It was my biking distance goal last summer and I succeeded near the end of the season.  I only made it there once, but I was pretty proud to have made it there at all! 

This spring I have been doing a lot of walking and postponed hoping on my bike until just a few weeks ago.  I have only been on a handful of bike rides this season, and after a recent one, someone who knows a lot more about bikes than I do, commented that she thought my knees were bending too much when I rode, and helped me adjust my seat to a proper height (thanks, T!).  So when I set out on what was only my fourth ride of the season, I made it all the way to that long dreamed of major intersection from last year.  It took me three months to get there last year, and only a week this year.  I also made better time too!  And I didn’t feel exhausted for days afterwards.  Amazing!

I have the whole summer ahead of me and am really looking forward to longer distance bike rides.  I picked up some padded cycling gloves, a bike lock, a portable air pump, a patch kit, a bike-mountable water bottle, and an ‘on the road‘ tool kit.  Now, I not only have the power to go further, but with these accessories, I also feel more secure about being farther from home.

Now to plan a distance goal for the summer.  The farthest I’ve cycled is 18 km; we’ll see what the new record is at the end of the season!

Holly's Ride to Conquer Cancer

My friend Holly is embarking on something epic in support of cancer research, and she needs your help to pull it off.  As part of a fundraiser to support The Campbell Family Institute at The Princess Margaret Hospital, Holly, along with many other brave and athletic people, will be riding her bicycle from Toronto to Niagara Falls.  In only two days. The ride spans over 200km, which to me sounds impossible, but Holly is going to do it in support of cancer research.

From Holly's ride website:

This ride is something I feel very strongly about as I have had to say goodbye to too many people I care about. With your help I know that we can make a difference in people's lives and keep the people we love happy & healthy.

Thank you in advance for your help.

Holly Greig

The ride starts on June 12, and Holly has until then to raise $2500, which is the minimum amount riders have to fundraise in order to participate.  She is already over halfway towards her goal, but still needs $925 to be able to ride in June.  Every little bit counts, so if you can afford to support her with a donation to this good cause, please follow the link provided to support Holly in this amazing bike ride!

To make a donation, or learn more about this fundraising effort, please click here.

UPDATE: As of June 9, Holly surpassed her goal of $2500 and will be bike riding to Niagara Falls the weekend of June 12.  Congratulations Holly on your tremendous effort!!